There are five complete lessons in the Teacher's Guide. This relevant science project can be taught in about sixteen classroom sessions. Yes, you read that correctly, "Make a Weather Station, Create a Weather Network" provides all that is needed to teach over sixteen hours worth of a weather science project! Every lesson in the program offers a coordinated teaching plan with a step-by-step guide, and lists materials and pre-preparation tasks necessary to teach the lesson. Each lesson also details the learning outcomes, key concepts and vocabulary introduced. For educators who wish to delve deeper into topics, ideas are also offered for extra assignments and supplemental learning activities. Finally, all the relevant overheads, handouts, facts, examples, activities, instructions, assignments and demonstrations are all included to support the lessons. This 135 page book is an amazing tool for maximizing teaching and preparation time, and advancing the science learning of students, no matter what your comfort level in science instruction.

To see a sample lesson, click the blue arrow in the Table of Contents.
Look below the TOC for a detailed Lessons Overview.

Lesson one begins by challenging students to consider the importance of weather forecasting in their lives. Students learn that three key ingredients make up the weather (air, water and heat) and discover the importance of observing weather objectively. For homework they begin a weather observation journal. In the second lesson, the class reviews the principles of good observation and invents ways to measure the wind. They then each use drinking cups and other items to make an anemometer for measuring wind speed. In this lesson they also make a simple thermometer for measuring air temperature. Their weather instruments are taken home and the students practice using them to record weather events at home. In lesson three students perform simple calculations and analyses with the weather data they collected for homework. They are introduced to the other instruments in a weather station. The class finds out that they each are making a complete, personal weather station. After learning about air pressure, everyone uses everyday materials to make a barometer for measuring it. They are presented with a way to organize the weather data they are collecting. Each student then makes a rain gauge from large plastic pop bottles. These two new homemade instruments are taken home and added to the home weather stations. Lesson four is in three parts and lasts about three classroom periods. In this lesson the class first works to compare and analyze weather data from two sources. They then learn how a windsock is different from an anemometer and build a windsock for their weather stations. The class practices transforming their weather data into graphs. They discover how to read their graphs and form hypotheses. After finding out that air always contains some water vapour, they build a hygrometer to measure this. Their weather stations are completed after they construct the last weather instrument, a nephoscope for noting the direction of moving clouds. In lesson five, the final lesson, students post the graphs they made onto a map of their neighbourhood and use them to identify weather patterns across their neighbourhood. They are introduced to the concept of microclimates. They learn the definition of a weather network and realize that the whole class has now become a weather network!

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